Rekha Basu: Obama must make good on promise to close Gitmo

11:37 PM,
May 9, 2013

Rekha Basu

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rekha basu

"I don't want these individuals to die," President Barack Obama said when asked at a press conference recently about the propriety of force-feeding detainees on hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay.

No, but is that his call to make? To some of those who have languished for years in intolerable conditions, without charges or trial, death might be preferable to a suspended limbo. It's an awful prospect, but with every other right stripped away from them, the right to refuse food is one they should have.

A reported 21 hunger-strikers are being force-fed with tubes, and five are hospitalized. They're ...